In this post:
1. a few words and images from this weekend, and the week prior
2. even more of my “creepy” obsession
3. plus a look at the latest in video game fashion
Was a pretty jam-packed weekend! Well, mostly Friday…
Summer In The City
First off, Katie and I decided to head on over to the Jersey Ikea for some fine Swedish meatballs and el-cheapo Swedish furniture. But it wasn’t till we arrived at Port Authority that we discovered that the free bus only runs on weekends. Bummer. So instead, we went on over to Mitsuwa, that Japanese grocery and super-store that we love so dearly for their excellent cafeteria, as well as stock up on healthy and junk food (which in Japan, is still pretty healthy, at least compared to the junk in America). Here’s what I had for lunch, the Kayaba Original Curry special, which I’ve never had before, simply because it’s a weekday-only menu item (only been there on the weekends)…
… How was it? You’ll have to tune into Americurry to find out! Which I haven’t updated in ages, I realize. Sorry Chris, if you’re reading this.
Normally after we eat, it’s immediately onto the bookstore, but this time Katie and I decided to hit the driving range right next door to hit some balls. Once dated a girl whose dad was a golf fanatic, and I’d humor the guy by listening to his golf-related ramblings, even read some secrets of golfing book, just so we’d have something to chitchat about. Not that I didn’t enjoy going to the range and attempt to apply all that he had tried instilling into me, it’s just that I flat out suck at any form of golf that doesn’t have Mario involved in any fashion. And X number of years later, the story was still the same; the one and only time my ball managed to get some air, it veered to the right and directly collided with a ball shot by the dude next to me, who was obviously some power player, and I was wondering if he was gonna get in my face.
Afterward was Target, which was next door to the range, and we screwed around like a bunch of dimwitted teenagers with nothing to do in the middle of the summer and in New Jersey. At least I did. By the time we made it back to the bookstore, it finally dawned upon us the differences between the weekday and weekend shuttle bus schedule; instead of having an hour to do our shopping till the next ride back to NYC, we actually had two hours. Which meant plenty of time for flipping through assorted Japanese magazines, like this Mac one featuring the girls from Evangelion listening to iPods…
Inside the grocery store proper, one will find many weird and wonderful delicacies, as well as assorted personal care items, like…
Eventually our ride back to NYC arrived, though the trip itself was unfortunately long and annoying; traffic was a real mess, but that’s cuz it was a Friday afternoon, whereas the teenage animu dorks who fill every moment with the sound of Pocky being consumed and irritating nonsense is always present, regardless of day apparently. Soon we were back in Manhattan to unload our goods and pretty ourselves up for later that evening, which was Joe Simko’s one-man art show at Live Fast…
… Wish I was able to get a decent shot of the space as a whole, but it was just too jam-packed. But here’s what it looked like going down…
… And right above the stairs…
… Yet another spot in the store that Joe painted, way back for his first exhibition there…
The show was a blazing success; tons of folks were on-hand Joe sold a bunch of his shirts and prints. Afterward we all went to a bar around the corner for the after-party, where everyone got ridiculously trashed. Plenty of pictures were taken of the debauchery that ensued, though I’m fairly certain that no one’s gonna take too kindly of me sharing their drunken mugs across the internet. With one sole exception, that being Richie Rheingold of Beer Drinking Fools/Skum City fame (it was also his birthday last night)…
May as well pass along a few other party pics that I had completely forgotten about. Like from this little shindig on the roof of Gawker HQ from about two weeks ago…
… It was for the newest addition to their family, that being Stephen Totilo. Who of course was over an hour late to his own party, lol. Anyhow here he is with fellow game journalist, and fellow Johnny To fanboy, Evan Narcisse…
… And here’s Tracey John with her guy pal Jesse Angelo…
… Steve had me repeat one of my wacky dating stories that I told him during our visit to South Philly for Dragon’s Gate for them, which I’d love to share here as well, but you know, the power of Google and all. Let’s just say her name is something so bizarre that it’s impossible to believe its legit or for real. And therefore all the more search-able!
These are from the following weekend in Central Park, at the annual IGDA picnic…
… What you’re seeing is a bunch of dudes play-testing a new game, something that happens a lot when game designers hang out. I forget the name, though it’s essentially a modified version of dodge ball. The ball’s inside an elastic net that’s pined to the ground, with everyone circled around. I believe each player has to stay in a specific area, or zone, but I forget. Anyhow, the goal is to take everyone else out by hitting them with the ball, obviously, which flies around like crazy due to it being tethered. Punching and kicking the ball is encouraged, making things especially fast and furious; the areas below the elbows and knees are “safe” so one play the defensive game as well. You can also catch and hold onto the ball, but only for like three seconds, or you’re booted out. Didn’t get a chance to play, but looked like lots of fun! Nick Fortugno, whom most folks know as the guy who created Diner Dash while over at Gamelab, can be seen in the first two shots, right before he jammed his finger during one particular fast and furious game.
Later that evening I hooked up with Dave and Joe Salina; we bar hopped all over the East Village before ending up at Typhoon Lounge for some Japanese gatorade stuff as Mike called in. Here’s Dave trying to beat Hilary’s long-standing record in that pervy iPhone game that I love so dearly…
… Close, but no cigar! Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find the link to Hilary’s score, but it’s like 12.1 or something like that.
As for yesterday, kinda wanted to head down to Sunshine Cinema to check out Thirst, Park Chan-Wook’s new vampire flick (I still can’t believe that he managed to land another directing gig, considering how badly I’m A Cyborg But That’s Okay bombed… which I totally loved btw). But the night before had taken it’s toll, so we both decided to just stay in and recover. The highlight was definitely watching Katie tackling Persona 4′s end bosses (not the final, big bad one, but the two before it), along with explaining to her that the reason why her character didn’t get laid on Christmas was how she didn’t try to bang any of the primary female characters throughout the game. She simply chose the “let’s be friends” option. lol, women.
And earlier this afternoon, Katie & I finally made it out to Ikea, and long story short, the bus ride home was a nightmare. I swear to God, I have ZERO luck these days when it comes traveling, especially on the Jersey turnpike. Won’t bother with the specifics since it really wouldn’t much of any interest to anyone, you just had to be there. Though my favorite part was a plank of wood I had purchased (an extra shelf, since I’m rapidly running out of space for all the stupid figures I’ve accumulated) slipped out of compartment above me and ramming some poor Chinese woman right in the toes, and not just the fear of being semi-guilty of breaking a bone but this annoying kid just glaring at me asking what happened. I just love how A) no one knows where they’re going on the road these days (our bus driver didn’t know how to get to Port Authority… seriously) and B) parents in NYC seem to have zero control over their children. I could actually go on for some time, but yeah, I know Colin is in town tonight, getting hosed with the boys at Kenka if I had to guess, but none of that for me this particular evening, sorry.
Despite All The Animu, Still A Marvel Fanboy At Heart
Check out what I picked up at the Japanese bookstore…
… The latest issue of Newtype comes with a figure of the new EVA girl, and as you can sorta see, it’s that same one featured here! As for the magazine itself, there’s actually not a whole lot on the Evangelion 2.0, mostly just one person’s impression. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve pretty much exhausted their coverage and would like to move onto other things.
Anyhow, now might be as good a time as any to pass along the latest round of pics centered on figures that’s caught my eye as of late. Let’s get right to the creepy; these two are from an anime called Candy Boy that I have yet to check out…
Here’s a face that should be recognizable to many Marvel fanboys, Rogue as envisioned by Japanese illustrator Shunya Yamashita…
… He’s already done Black Widow, and has Scarlet Witch coming down the pipeline, though neither character does much for me. Though I’ve also heard that he’s gonna do Marvel Girl/Phoenix after that, which I will DEFINITELY be snatching up! Maybe Psylocke too. And this character is from Japan proper, from some show called Enka Oudou Dai Shogun…
… BTW, for those interested in see a few other examples of Yamashita’s work in the field of figures, can simply go here.
Tomopop also has a closer look at the bunny Strike Witch in swimsuit attire that I showed last time…
Okay, enough little statues of imaginary girls. Here we have Lucha Bear!
… Unfortunately, like so many things, I’m super late to the party, and the panda color scheme is long gone, but I believe the yellow color scheme is still available via Super 7.
Another thing I totally missed the boat on is Shin Tanaka’s T-Boy, but at least the new variant looks somewhat cool…
Came across a Flickr that has lots of great, close-up shots of assorted vinyl figures, including a few game related ones, like UmJammer Lammy…
… Along with PaRappa The Rapper…
… I actually used to have that figure, but it got lost during a move many moons ago.
Finally, an Iron Man statue coming from Japan that is all kinds of sexy…
Most Obscure Video Game Shirt Ever?
And here’s something else that arrived in the mail yesterday…
… A limited edition Persona 4 shirt from Japan that was nabbed on eBay. I got the very last one I think! And like many other recent shirts I’ve picked up from the land of the rising sun, it’s an XL sized shirt that would actually fit an Xl sized person in America, which is somewhat annoying, since that means its a bit too big for me. Oh well.
Hey, remember me bitching about the horrible Uniqlo X Japan Games line from a while back? Well, a few of them filtered into the SoHo store and I actually picked one up!
… I wore it to Otakon a few weeks back, where NO ONE recognized the game in question, which was quite the shock. Again, L is actually L, and my God was it damn near impossible to track one down that would fit me. Apparently whenever Uniqlo NYC gets a shipment, there’s maybe three X and XL sized shirts and seven thousand S and XS sized ones. I’m fully aware of the fact that everyone is small in Japan, but don’t they realize that Americans are significantly larger? Especially gamer dorks. Either that or douchebags in the know buy all the useful sizes on day one to make a profit on eBay.
But here’s Dave with a shirt that a pal got for him in Hong Kong, which is medium, yet fits him like a small, which is what he normally wears…
… It’s part of Uniqlo’s side line of Pac Man tees celebrating Pac Man’s 30th anniversary, Here’s a few others…
Caught this over at Offworld a short while ago; a shirt that’s supposed to be featuring Tetris, yet…
… What the hell is that falling piece supposed to be? Not to mention how there’s a solid horizontal line near the bottom. Did I mention it’s $45? Talk about an epic fail. Jesus Christ. Related,and far more “upscale”…
Meanwhile, this Gama-Go shirt that’s supposed to conjure up memories of Donkey Kong pretty much hits it right on the head…
Moving onto Tiny Cartridge, I must admit, as much as I hate crude humor when it comes to gaming apparel (again, the sight of the “Don’t Make Me Go Zelda On You” tee still gives me a headache, just thinking about it, many years after the fact), this one featuring the boys from Double Dragon is pretty funny…
This particular design is also a bit too Hot Topic/Gamestop-ish for my tastes, but it’s funny because it’s true…
… Sorta dig this one as well…
As spotted over at GameSetWatch; shirts featuring several different kind of arcade boot up screens…
… Though I kinda like their shump related offerings a tad bit more, including the Ikaruga messenger bag…
That same place also has a Flynn’s Arcade tee, from Tron, which looks okay, though this place’s ENCOM shirt is far classier. Though even better is this tee from The Last Starfighter…
I’ve never gotten the whole Bathing Ape thing, so these BAPE crossed with Pokemon designs do absolutely nothing for me…
Time to check out some shoes real quick. Custom game related footwear is somewhat the rage at the moment, but almost all of them look horrendous to me. But not these…
Finally, these have been making the rounds as of late, and since it’s Mega Man related, of course I’m gonna pass it along here as well…
… Must say, nice job with the Bass head! Though I have yet to determine if it’s better or worse than this…
BTW, is it way too late to get an 8-bit keyboard cat shirt? F’n Jon Stewart.
